Instagram, Facebook hiding a 'dark secret,' EU claims; company could pay a huge fine

Brussels has run out of patience with the scroll. The European Commission said on July 10 that it has preliminarily found Meta in breach of the Digital Services Act, concluding that Instagram and Facebook were built to keep people hooked rather than simply engaged.The list of culprits is familiar: infinite scroll, autoplay, push notifications, and recommendation feeds tuned to know exactly what keeps a thumb moving. The ruling wraps up a two year investigation into what that design does to users' mental and physical wellbeing, with minors and vulnerable adults singled out as most at risk.The Commission's language is unusually blunt for a regulator—it says these features tip users' brains into "autopilot mode." Its prescription is just as direct: turn off autoplay and infinite scroll by default, introduce real screen time breaks, and stop optimising the recommender system purely for engagement.Should the findings stand once Meta has had its say, the company could be fined up to 6% of its global annual turnover, a figure that could top $12 billion based on last year's revenue.Meta downplayed how much time teens spend on the apps at night, Commission saysThe Commission's core complaint is that Meta never seriously interrogated its own product decisions. Investigators say the company sat on data showing how many hours teenagers were logging on Instagram and Facebook after dark, and looked past how formats like Reels and Stories nudge people toward excessive use.Meta's existing guardrails didn't impress regulators either. Time management prompts, even the ones turned on by default for teen accounts, take one tap to dismiss and barely move usage numbers, the findings note.Parental controls come with the same catch: they only work if a parent has the technical fluency and spare time to actually configure them.Meta disagrees with the findings, points to its Teen Accounts safeguardsMeta isn't conceding the point. Spokesperson Ben Walters said the findings overlook changes the company has already made, citing Teen Accounts that let parents block Instagram at night and cap daily screen time at 15 minutes.The company says it plans to keep talking to Brussels rather than dig in. That's less about goodwill than procedure—Meta now gets to review the Commission's case files and submit a formal rebuttal before anything becomes binding. A fine, if it comes, is still months away.This is Meta's second DSA finding this year, after the under-13 ruling in AprilFriday's findings aren't an isolated jab. The Commission dinged Meta in April for failing to keep under-13s off its platforms, and it's separately probing so called "rabbit hole" effects, where recommendation algorithms steer young users toward increasingly extreme content over time.TikTok faced near identical charges in February. The timing here is no accident, either: an EU expert panel briefs Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday with recommendations on child safety online, feeding into a broader push—already gaining ground in France—toward an Australia style social media ban for teenagers across the bloc.Get the latest technology news and updates. Download the TOI App.